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HOW WE RECEIVE HELP FROM GOD

J. A. Gardiner

THE PROMISES OF GOD

R. Taylor

TRUTH LEARNED THROUGH CONFLICT

J. N. Mather

EXTRACT

J. A. Gardiner

Genesis 45: 25–28; 46: 1–4; Daniel 9: 1–3, 20–23; Esther 5: 1–3

I have read about these three persons trusting that the Lord may use the Scriptures to help us, because these three persons, Jacob, and Daniel and Esther, are all persons that get help. Jacob is helped here in regard to his unbelief, and maybe we are like Jacob. It may be that we accept things and know they are right, and believe them in a certain way, but we are not active in faith in relation to them. The position here is most propitious as it is today, Christ is exalted and the Spirit is here anxious to unite our hearts to Him where He is. The situation in these chapters in Genesis is like the epistle to the Colossians. I think Paul alludes to it when he was writing to the Corinthians where he speaks about the abundance that there is in Christ,

“in everything ye have been enriched in him”, 1 Corinthians 1: 5. What enrichment, beloved, there is in Christ, but maybe we do not believe that.

Jacob would admit to the fact, maybe, but he is not actively in faith in relation to it. Joseph had sent provision for him to bring him where he was, to the place of plenty. It is a wonderful thing to be transferred from the circumstances where we are surrounded by spiritual poverty.

Joseph’s brethren had to go down to Egypt for food and come back, and when that was finished they had to go down for some more; that was an ongoing thing, a very onerous thing.

There is no need for that and all the trauma and anxiety that belongs to it. Joseph wanted them to come and live where he was, where he would attend to their every need. Think of the wonder of the present day, when every need of our souls can be met by Christ, as we move into this great area where He is beyond death, and live there in our affections, as it

says, “seek the things that are above, where the Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God”, Colossians 3: 1.

Jacob has all this transportation sent to him, typical of the fulness of what is in the Spirit to bring us in our affections to Christ where He is. So that we should find our life which is hid with the Christ in God. Can it be said of us?—“When the Christ is manifested who is our life, then shall ye also be manifested with him in glory”, Colossians 3: 4. The prospects are wonderful, but at the moment there is no need to live in moral or spiritual poverty. We can have all the wealth that is in Christ towards us, indeed it says, “and ye are complete in him”, Colossians 2: 10. Jacob is not conscious of that yet because he does not believe it. These asses are sent, a great convoy of supply to convince him that Joseph is still alive. It says, “his heart fainted, for he did not believe them”. Is there anybody like that? We have all had that kind of experience. “And they spoke to him all the words of Joseph, which he had spoken to them”. Then he sees the waggons, I think that relates to some special spiritual touch, and when he saw the waggons that Joseph had sent to carry him, “the spirit of Jacob their father revived”. What a fine thing that is, we know it in ourselves; we may have been cast down, we may have been in depression, overall we may have been in unbelief, then something happens, and all that we are according to God begins to assert itself. Your heart does not faint then, you are strengthened in your affections. It says, “the spirit of Jacob their father revived”. May the Lord revive our spirits at this time. If our spirits are cast down and we are feeling out of touch, He would revive them.

Then “Israel said”, now he is a spiritual man, he is not in unbelief now. As he moves on this line, God comes in confirmatively. All that he is according to God is asserting itself, now he is going to move in dignity. “And Israel said, It is enough—Joseph my son is yet alive; I will go and see him before I die. And Israel

took his journey”. That is a movement in faith, in belief, “and came to Beer-Sheba; and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac”. What is spiritual has re-asserted itself in his soul; typically he is thinking of Christ in resurrection, and then God comes in and speaks to him. Think of the blessedness of that. As we are moving on this line, how ready God is to help us, keeping us on the right path so that we are moving in relation to Christ glorified.

“And God spoke to Israel in the visions of the night and said”, you get confirmation in your own soul between yourself and God; not somebody else saying it to you, it may happen through ministry but it is you and God, and your unbelief is helped.

God speaks to him and says, “Jacob. Jacob!”, and he said, “Here am I”. Now God commits Himself to him. Would you like that experience, to be assured of the truth, to be assured that you are on the right path? “I am God, the God of thy father: fear not to go down to Egypt”, and all that God will do is in order to reach His purposes, to establish our souls in them and them in our souls. We have to move on this line to where Christ is and live there. Jacob is helped in his unbelief; now he is believing, he is moving in faith. That is what John’s gospel is about, that “ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life in his name”, John 20: 31. In the type that is what Jacob is at here, and God is confirming his movements. As we move in faith we can expect God to confirm us. It is like the gospel, when first you accepted the Lord Jesus as your Saviour you took a step in faith, and God confirmed that with forgiveness. That is Christianity, moving in faith and finding divine confirmation.

Jacob goes down to Egypt and how great he becomes there; he is greater than Pharaoh, he is able to bless Pharaoh. When moving in the power of faith, he becomes the greatest blesser in the Old Testament. There is great evidence of fatherhood too in him. What

a fine meeting it would be to have someone like Jacob as a father. It is not exactly an instructor in Christ, but he is a father, and much more could be said about him. The Lord would encourage us to move in faith, and to keep ourselves in faith, because the Spirit of God operates within the bounds of faith, and all the wealth of heaven is available to us. So that we do not need to be in poverty ekeing out our living in a moral and spiritual way, but we are to draw upon the fulness that is in Christ, that is so readily available to us. He wants us to do it, it is the desire of the mind and heart of the Lord Jesus, that we should draw of His fulness; John says that, “for of his fulness we all have received, and grace upon grace”, John 1: 16.

Now Daniel is an exercised young man, he began with purpose of heart. He set his course in a certain direction and he will not be diverted from it. I would like to speak to the younger brethren that they should follow this line Daniel sets out, and be exercised that they might find out everything that can be found out about the truth, about the revelation of God; find out about the gospels; find out about the epistles; read them and seek help to understand. Young men and young women, and old men and old women too, we can make our way through the Scriptures; know the settings of them; why this book was written and why that book was written; what it was written to meet, what it was written to encourage, what it was written to set on.

Now Daniel is concerned about the captivity, he says here, “I Daniel understood by the books that the number of the years, whereof the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah the prophet, for the accomplishment of the desolations of Jerusalem, was seventy years”. Mr Darby in a footnote to his translation of the Bible gives us the chapters in Jeremiah where Daniel found this out. No doubt there would be other books, there would be the books of Moses and some other, books, not too many, not the sixty six books of the Bible as it is now, but there

were the books that Daniel was able to read, and understand that the time of the captivity for the accomplishment of the desolations of Jerusalem, was seventy years. That brought its own exercise. You might begin to wonder, Why should this be? Why should there be captivity?

Why should there be breakdown in the church? Why should there be different companies?

Why should there be different churches? Why should there be national churches? That sort of thing would no doubt concern Daniel and it should concern us. Why is it? Why did this happen? The result of his enquiry is that what is priestly in him, what is developed feelingly in him, his affinities with God, come to the fore, and he proceeds in the presence of God here and takes upon himself the burden of the whole thing. Have you ever done that? Have you ever borne the iniquity of the sanctuary before God being humbled by the iniquity of the priesthood and by our own part in it?

It is a right thing, as Mr Raven said, that every Christian should know where they are and why they are there. We should know why we have come to this meeting. It is important that we understand these things, and that we are established in our links with God in relation to it.

We are not just to be breaking bread and coming along to the meeting, but we are to be in this thing vitally. Despite the ruin and the breakdown, I think if we were like Daniel and established in our links with God in the truth, that the Lord would preserve us right through to the end. It is important that we follow up all the helps that have come to us in the revival.

There have been great helps given by God, gifted persons who have opened up the truth, and have set it out in a way that has cleared the ground, you might say, for the position in which we are today. Some people do not like the word position. I think it is quite all right. The position relates to 2 Timothy 2: 19–22, where we are to depart from iniquity and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, these beautiful qualities, to pursue them with those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart.

Now, as we take upon ourselves before God the solemnity of the ruin that has come in, we are going to find things in ourselves that are, to say the least, unsavoury. God would use all these matters to effect deliverance in our souls. This meant much to heaven, Daniel going through his prayer here, and taking upon himself his own sins. And who amongst us has not sinned—if we say we have not sinned we deceive ourselves—we are all on the same basis, the same level as far as sin is concerned. We bear this thing before God in all humility and lowliness, because we should be the most humble people, the most humble Christians on the face of the earth; lowliness and humility should be with us, as they were with Daniel. God comes in and helps him.

He says in verse 20, “And whilst I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before Jehovah my God for the holy mountain of my God”. How he felt for the nation! This is the man who prayed three times a day with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he speaks about “the holy mountain of my God”, that would be Jerusalem; he is thinking about Zion, thinking about the great thoughts of God represented there; how God and His great thoughts are inviolate; they are not subject to breakdown. How wonderful that is, but we are to be maintained in relation to it. So he says, “whilst I was yet speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, flying swiftly”. How quickly the Lord will come in, into our souls, to give us understanding, to give us to see how things are; and in Daniel there is the reflection of Christ.

It says, “touched me about the time of the evening oblation”. At this point in the dispensation, it is like the time of the evening oblation. I think Philadelphia answers to the evening oblation; there is a morning oblation, you might say the application of the morning oblation was in the day of Pentecost, the early chapters of the Acts, the height of Paul’s ministry; but now we are at the close of

the day, and here is a man who is touched about the time of the evening oblation. There was no official evening oblation because the whole land was in captivity, but Daniel is thinking spiritual thoughts, and we need to think spiritually; to think, as has been said, in the terms of Scripture, and find that there is support for us now at the time of the evening oblation.

So Daniel says here, “And he informed me”, we would be informed persons, not ignorant persons, but informed persons—“and talked with me, and said, Daniel, I am now come forth to make thee skilful of understanding”. He started by reading the Bible; by reading the ministry; by praying; by applying himself to the truth. I think if you read the ministries of Mr J. N. Darby, Mr J. B. Stoney, Mr F. E. Raven and Mr J. Taylor Snr., you will find directive in them; directive never found in any other ministry since the time of the apostles. For nearly one hundred and seventy years God has been working to one end in the recovery of the truth.

I think it is wonderful that God in His mercy and grace has given ministry that has resulted in the Lord’s supper being maintained and cherished in the hearts of the saints all through the recovery. There has been adjustment as to the Supper through the ministry of Mr J. Taylor over the first fifty years of this century. Now I believe we have it as the Lord would have it. I do not claim anything that is not available to every single Christian. When we look at that loaf, “we, being many, are one loaf, one body” (1 Corinthians 10: 17), that is the ground that we take.

Now this is very encouraging, especially for younger persons, because in our youth we do not know very much, and even as we get older we still, maybe, do not know very much, but as we apply ourselves we have all heaven behind us, making itself available to us. Think of the wonder of this, “the man Gabriel ... flying swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation. And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, Daniel, I am now come forth to make thee skilful of

understanding”. I think this is tremendously encouraging. “At the beginning of thy supplications the word went forth”. Have you ever prayed and thought there was nobody hearing you? You may even wander in your mind as you are praying, but as you are earnestly committed on this line God hears you. Think of the interest that heaven has in somebody like this! Would to God that all God’s people were like this, with this kind of desire, with this kind of committal. Then he says, “the word went forth, and I am come to declare it; for thou art one greatly beloved”. Think of the affections of God coming out to this man; surely he is like Christ, “thou art one greatly beloved”. Jesus is God’s beloved Son; in Ephesians He is the Beloved. You can see the features of Christ in Daniel in his desire for the maintenance of all that was of God.

Esther got help to take on a great responsibility; she got help from Mordecai who is called Mordecai the Jew. What marks Mordecai is faithfulness to God; faithfulness too to the authorities because he is the means of the exposure of a plot against the throne. He will not in any way give way to the flesh, typified in Haman, he is not recognising this man Haman whatsoever; publicly he is in sackcloth, he is feeling deeply the terribleness of the position when the Jews are in captivity. Do you know what the scripture says a Jew is? It is not exactly a national thought in the gospel, it says, A Jew is not a Jew who is one outwardly, but

“he is a Jew who is so .inwardly; and circumcision, of the heart, in spirit, not in letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God”, Romans 2: 28, 29. That kind of person belongs to Philadelphia, belongs to the revival. There are those who “say that they are Jews, and are not, but lie”, Revelation 3: 9. Persons like Mordecai in the present day are those who maintain what is proper to God, and what is proper to the assembly and to the Lord’s supper. They feel things immensely. Mordecai when he knows that things are signed, expresses his feelings in this loud and bitter cry (Esther 4: 1). Esther is not too sure about going

in to the king, but she receives help and adjustment, so it says, “And it came to pass on the third day”. What depth of exercise there was in this, three days fasting, as it says, “fast for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day” (Esther 4: 16). Can we sustain that kind of exercise in relation to the truth, in relation to the brethren? Suppose the government said there are to be no more meetings under penalty of death. How would you feel? That was the situation here; the Jews were to be eliminated, that is Esther’s people, she is the one who has the whole cause in her hand.

So it says, “And it came to pass on the third day, that Esther put on royal apparel”. That is what drew me to this scripture. Have we got royal apparel? You might say, What is royal apparel? Well, when the queen or the king gets crowned, they are arrayed in all their regalia; that in man’s world is royal apparel, but that is not royal apparel in God’s world. “Esther put on royal apparel, and stood in the inner court of the king’s house, over against the king’s house”. She was bearing the features that come out in the King, that is Christ, primarily that is meekness and lowliness, that is what the King said, I am meek and lowly in heart; He is also full of compassion. Typically she is wearing features of the new man, “lowliness, meekness, long-suffering; forbearing one another and forgiving one another ... even as the Christ has forgiven you, so also do ye”, Colossians 3: 12, 13. All these are the qualities I would associate with royal apparel, as heaven regards it. And then, “to all these add love, which is the bond of perfectness”, that is royal apparel. As these features are with us we find that the throne is absolutely available to us, and whatever we want, we will get. You think of the Lord Jesus saying to the disciples, “Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give you”, John 16: 23. Have you ever tried it? He knows they will be asking right things, they will not be asking for anything that is to make much of them; He knows they will be asking in relation to the testimony and all that relates to God’s

pleasure here. He also said, “Again I say to you ... whatsoever it may be that they shall ask, it shall come to them from my Father who is in the heavens”, Matthew 18: 19. Do you believe that? The whole of heaven is available to such persons.

So it says here, “when the king saw the queen Esther standing in the court, that she obtained grace in his sight; and the king held out to Esther the golden sceptre that was in his hand”.

She is accepted, she has an audience with the king, “and Esther drew near, and touched the top of the sceptre. And the king said to her, What wilt thou, queen Esther? and what is thy request? it shall be given thee even to the half of the kingdom”. How extensive is our asking?

The throne is favourable to us, the throne of grace, it is the seat of sovereign goodness and we are to approach it with boldness. The more we are clothed in this royal apparel, the more the features of Christ are substantially with us, the greater the favour we will be conscious of, and the greater the dispensation that will come to us from the very throne of God Himself. Think of the wonder of that!

We need help, I believe, in being able to sustain exercise like this, fasting, “fast for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day”, because I know for myself how superficial I am. We are not to be doleful or miserable; the Lord says, “when ye fast, be not as the hypocrites, downcast in countenance ... so that they may appear fasting to men”, (Matthew 6: 16), but I think in earnestness of concern with God in relation to all His interests here, we can do with more depth. I do not say that chidingly, because probably I am the most shallow person here, but with the desire to be able to carry things like Esther and her maidens do here, and like Daniel as he bore the iniquity of the sanctuary and the iniquity of the priesthood, although he was not officially a priest. I think we shall find great scope for enlargement in our souls and increase in our knowledge

of God, and, consequently, a greater enjoyment of God’s love. May it be so, beloved. I know these words are feeble, but I am sure that as we earnestly set ourselves to get help from God it will readily come to us. May the Lord bless the word for His name’s sake.

Address at Brechin, 30 April 1994

THE PROMISES OF GOD

R. Taylor

2 Corinthians 1: 19–22; John 14: 1–4, 18; Matthew 14: 24–31

I count on the Lord’s help to say a word on the promises of God; something that God in His grace has entered into with us as taking account of the weakness of our condition and the danger of our being turned aside. God’s promises are so different from men’s. Men promise many things that they cannot fulfil; but God’s promises are related to what He purposed before the world began, before ever sin entered into the world. He has made known something of that to us in His promises, and the glory and authority of His Person enter into the promises He has made. You can hardly speak of the promises of God without speaking of Abraham, a man who was called out from an idolatrous world, and you may say when he had nothing God promised him everything. Abraham believed God, not only believed Him but he walked in the light of the promises. It strengthened him amidst all the forces that were against him. It seemed impossible for him to have a son, and yet God said all the promises would centre in his seed. So it says, “being fully persuaded that what he has promised he is able also to do; wherefore also it was reckoned to him as righteousness”, Romans 4: 21, 22.

I believe as we are helped by the Spirit to lay hold of the promises of God, it would stabilise our souls in the day of uncertainty that we are in.

In Hebrews 11 we have a list of persons who embraced the promises. That means they loved them and cherished them. In spite of what men were saying and doing they believed God.

How much more so should we in our time, when we see that those promises are all secured in a glorious Man. Paul speaks of Him here, “the Son of God, Jesus Christ”, all God’s promises are yea and amen in Him. The whole purpose and counsels of divine love are opened up as this glorious Person comes onto our view. There was no other to preach, Paul says, “he who has been preached by us among you”, and there is no uncertainty in that preaching, as it says,

“yea is in him”. He is the One in whom all the promises are brought to pass. As we see the glory of that Person we can understand the whole counsels of divine love being worked out to God’s eternal glory and praise. So he says, “whatever promises of God there are, in him is the yea, and in him the amen”. We are brought onto more advantageous ground than Abraham, as we have a view of the Man who is able to bring them all to pass; One who has settled for ever the sin question and broken the bondage and power under which we lay; who has made way in the power of His blood for the new covenant; and in virtue of His work has brought us into the joy of reconciliation; so that we can see that there should be glory to God as we embrace those promises. All that God ever planned is centred in Him and His work, and from God’s point of view everything is secure in Him now. What an Object for our hearts, as He is for God’s heart.

As we lay hold of the certainty of these promises it helps us in the circumstances of life in which we are, so that there can be “glory to God by us”. Paul would have these Corinthians to be set up on this stable ground, that God has not delayed His promises. Peter

speaks of them as “precious promises”, 2 Peter 1: 4. He was writing to these Jews who had lost so much of their earthly possessions, saying whatever losses you may have sustained God has promised us much more in the Person of His Son, the One who has opened the door, as it were, for us to come into these precious promises. You can see that there is very little glory to God in persons who are burdened or uncertain, constantly searching after one thing or another, but the promises fix our gaze upon Christ and bring us to walk in the light of the purpose of God. Paul is saying here that not only has God given us His promises as they are secured in Christ, but He would establish us in these promises. He says, “Now he that establishes us with you in Christ ... is God”. Think of God establishing us. I think He is doing it by presenting to us His promises. He directs our eye to heaven instead of to earth and gives us a sight of the glory instead of what man has done. God has taken in hand Himself to establish us. We can see how Abraham was established as the promises came into his heart.

He would take nothing from the king of Sodom. He promised him many things on the line of worldly possessions, but Abraham said that the Most High God had blessed him. The promises of God were greater than all the king could propose. So he says, “establishes us with you in Christ”, the certainty of everything is in that glorious blessed Person, who has glorified God in the work He has done, and made way for us to be established so as to withstand the various attacks of Hades’ gates.

It says too that He has anointed us. That means He has given us power and grace to do things.

God has His pleasure in persons who embrace the promises. The anointing reminds us of David, and how he laid hold of the promises. Everything seemed in the hands of Saul. David was in a cave with a few men and yet there he was, God’s anointed, God’s king. O that we may find help and strength to lay hold in faith of these promises of God, that we may be strengthened to walk in another

way. The anointing comes out in our movements and in our speaking. The difference between the way David did things and the way Saul did things was in the anointing. It refers to the Holy Spirit’s power with us. The certainty of the promises in our hearts gives the Spirit liberty to strengthen us to walk here in the enjoyment of our heavenly portion. Then it says, He has “sealed us”. It means that God has marked us out, put His mark upon us. Those persons in Hebrews 11 who embraced the promises, they were marked out. It says of them that God was not ashamed of them to be called their God and He prepared for them a city. It shows what a transformation it can make in our lives as we embrace God’s promises; that we are strengthened to go against the stream as seeing the certainty of what God has done in Christ.

I would like to speak of two particular promises that have shed their light on the dark day in which we are. One is what the Lord says, “I am coming again and shall receive you to myself”, precious promise that shines through this whole dispensation, that He has gone to prepare us a place in His Father’s house. What a token of His love is the way He speaks here,

“Let not your heart be troubled”. What troubles come into our hearts in these days, but He says, “ye believe on God, believe also on me”. All the promises are yea and amen in Him.

They can never break down. As He has gone into the Father’s house He has there made a place for us that is our home. Mr Darby says.

‘And can we call our home

Our Father’s house on high’. (Hymn 64)

The hope and joy of that in our hearts gives a spring to our step in the day we are in. Christ has given us a place above that sin or our state can never change, “I go to prepare you a place”. Think of Christ going into heaven in the glory of His Person, the work that He came to do fully completed, being received up in glory, and as there He is engaged with the saints.

What a place we have in His heart! That place is undeserved indeed, but

the token of His love is that He has prepared us a place there, far greater than any place we could ever have here. Many families will be there in His Father’s house, it says, “there are many abodes”, but “I go to prepare you a place”. O the sense He would leave with those disciples of His love. Their love for Him, as ours, may ebb and flow, but His love for us remains unchanged. I believe He would leave a sense on our spirits today of His love for us, to establish our hearts in the fulness of His grace.

Then He makes this promise, “I am coming again and shall receive you to myself”. He is coming Himself! We have that in Thessalonians, the Lord Himself shall come. Again a precious token of His love, He is not sending an angel; it is not Michael or someone else that is coming; it is Himself. What a precious promise! Are we looking for Him? Are we embracing that promise as others did before us? How it changes everything here, “I am coming again”. He is no longer coming to settle the sin question, but coming as the One who has been glorified of the Father, to receive us to Himself. The Person is more than the place, glorious as the place will be. What will it be to dwell above, freed for ever from the burdens and the effects of sin? How glorious a place heaven will be, but the one who illuminates the whole scene is Christ Himself, “I am coming again and shall receive you to myself, that where I am ye also may be”. He is not to be there alone, “where I am ye also may be”. What a precious promise that we look for Him day by day. May the joy of it not wane in our affections because He does not delay His promise. He is ready to come. It is all in the Father’s timing. We are being tested today as to how much we are looking for Him. It takes our eye away from many other things that may engage us; it gives purpose to our walk and direction to our pathway, that we are waiting and looking for Him who is coming to receive us to Himself. The promises will all then be fully verified. No longer will it be a matter of promise but it will be face to face.

‘There only to adore,

Our souls their strength shall find’ (Hymn 74)

It is very beautiful that it says, “where I am ye also may be”. He is there in the right and glory of His person. It says about Him, “whom heaven indeed must receive” (Acts 3: 21), but He is not to be there alone, He wants us to be there with Him.

He makes another precious promise in the next section, He says, “I will not leave you orphans, I am coming to you”. It is not only that He is coming for us but He is coming to us.

The more we feel the orphan condition the more we will appreciate and realise the promise,

“I am coming to you”. He is coming to those who feel His absence. When He comes for the saints every blood bought saint will be caught up to be with Him for ever, a glorious hope, but He comes now to those who feel His absence. Many of us may not feel His absence enough, and because of that we do not realise His presence as much as we might as He comes to us. As orphans we would feel we cannot go on without Him. I think He is more ready to come to us than we are to receive Him.

We can see that in Matthew’s gospel. The ship was there tossed by the waves. The Lord had His eye upon them there, as He has His eye upon us today in the circumstances in which we are. In the fourth watch of the night He went off to them. I do not know if they were looking for Him or not. They were maybe talking about the confusion and the breakdown and the waves and the storm and the wind. It says, “he went off to them, walking on the sea”. The Lord, as I said, is more ready to come than we are to receive Him. The waves were disturbing their spirits but Jesus comes walking on the sea. It brings out His love and His grace. What a change it makes as He comes on to view. It is testing for us. We may be engaged with these storms, the sea and the wind. The Lord shows that none of these things alter His promise, “I am coming to you”. They thought it

was an apparition. We may get our eyes so filled with the confused state of things around us that we do not recognise the Lord, and it says that “they cried out through fear. But Jesus immediately spoke to them, saying, Take courage; it is I”. I believe He would say that to us today. It is not only a promise, it is an experience for most of our hearts, in the difficult times that we have known amidst all the wind and the waves Jesus has come saying, “it is I—be not afraid”.

He is greater than the waves; what a sight to see Him walking on them, treading all these problems under His feet, the Lord of glory, the One in whom all the promises are yea and amen. Here He is coming to them in the very circumstances in which they are. He did not wait until they got into calm waters. The problems and exercises of the day will not keep Him away, dear brethren. May we have an ear to hear His voice, “it is I”. May there be an echo in our hearts as it was in Peter’s, “Lord, if it be thou, command me to come to thee”, and it says,

“Peter ... walked upon the waters to go to Jesus”. The Lord here did not make a great calm.

He did not change the circumstances to make it easier for Peter to walk, but Peter had an Object for his heart that enabled him to walk superior to the circumstances. He walked upon the waters to go to Jesus. I believe the enemy of our souls is bringing many things to keep our eye off Christ and to fill our ears with many voices that would disturb our hearts, but His voice comes to Peter and to the disciples, “it is I—be not afraid”. What a sight to see Peter and the Lord walking on the waters.

You may say, you can understand the Lord walking on the waters, but Peter walks on them too as his eye is upon Christ. What an Object for our hearts today, amidst all the confusion.

Christ in whom all the promises of God are yea and amen. Peter then begins to see the wind strong and he becomes afraid. O what a picture of our hearts as we get our eye upon the difficulties instead of upon Christ. It says, “and beginning to sink he cried

out, saying, Lord, save me”. How readily that cry was heard. There was no word of reproach till later. It says, “immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught hold of him”. How ready the Lord is to come in, as I say again, more ready to come in than we are to receive Him. These very problems are used to endear Him to our affections, to bring out the verity of what Paul says that all the promises are yea and amen in Him. May we have our eye more firmly fixed upon Him so that we too may be able to walk upon the waters. What a sight Peter and the Lord walking on the waters! What a tribute to the power of divine grace! When we may be deflected how ready His hand is to sustain us.

May we increasingly feel His absence so that our hearts, in the Spirit’s grace, may more readily embrace His promises. The addresses to the churches in Revelation all have a promise to the overcomer. However much breakdown may have come in, the promises of Christ remain. Think of His promising to one overcomer to eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of God (Revelation 2: 7). In the presence of all that man has done and the breakdown of which we are part, the promises of God shine in all their wealth and beauty to draw our hearts to another country of which Christ is the glorious centre. May our eyes be more firmly fixed upon Christ, for His name’s sake.

Address at Endbach, 12 June 1993

TRUTH LEARNED THROUGH CONFLICT

J. N. Mather

Judges 3: 1–4; 1 Corinthians 1: 1–9; Romans 6: 19

This scripture in Judges has both interest and

instruction for the present time. Warfare is not uncommon among the people of God. To the most of us it is unwelcome; the Lord Jesus said, “Blessed the peace-makers” (Matthew 5: 9), and those words of His call forth a hearty response from many hearts. We would rather be without war and that is one aspect of the truth, a very precious one, that we might enjoy peace. There were seasons of peace in the time of the Judges, when the land rested from war; we do experience such seasons.

There is another way of looking at matters, however, as described in Judges 3; the war has not arisen by chance but is allowed of the Lord that we might learn war. The divine purpose behind this is “to prove Israel by them”. That is a very important aspect of what lies upon us and is another way that we may view our distresses—they are come upon us to prove us, whether we will obey the commandments of Jehovah which He commanded our fathers. This latter is a different approach but equally valid. It particularly applies to those who have not known the wars of the Lord. Some of the older brethren have seen much conflict, and have had to learn for themselves what the Lord was saying in these things. A new generation has grown up, however, which has not had to fight for Canaan and they also have to learn war.

Specifically, the Lord Jesus has left unresolved problems among us so that each one of us might learn war, might learn to obey Him because that is the prime thing to a soldier—to obey orders.

Much has transpired since the early days of the revival, calling for our close attention. The scriptures in 1 Corinthians and in Romans illustrate some of that. Those few verses from 1

Corinthians 1, identify the all important fact that the assembly in a place is autonomous (under the Lord) but not independent of saints in other places. How much distress has been occasioned over the years by failure to work out these

two vital facts practically! As to the first, no other locality has any right to interfere or participate in the matters of another locality; the brethren in each place severally, walking in the light of the assembly, represent the Lord Jesus there. He holds them responsible to administrate for Him there. If they cannot solve their problems, no one else can do it for them. This does not exclude the advantage to be had from godly counsel on the part of spiritual persons from elsewhere but such persons would always recognise their limits, as not being ‘of the place’, and would find grace not to overstep those limits. A statement in one of Mr Darby’s letters of 1844 bears on this. ‘As to Geneva, it has been said to me, Will you judge and condemn those brethren who have separated themselves? and this has been put to me as a test. I have replied, that if I judged those who separated themselves, I must judge others also, and I did not pretend to do either the one or the other—that if I were at Geneva I should act according to my conscience, and should endeavour to walk individually in peace’.

Letters of J. N. Darby, Vol. 1, page 74.

Merely to confirm this fact, it is noteworthy that the saints at Corinth were the assembly of God there. Notice how richly endowed they were. If the letter stopped at verse 9 of chapter 1, we would say what a rich locality, they will not need help from anyone—they have all that they need to solve any matter that may arise. As you continue reading, you find that conditions at Corinth were far from measuring up concretely to what was true of them abstractly. In spite of that, the apostle does not send the neighbouring locality to sort out their problems. He does not even come himself, he sends Timothy to remind them of his ways as they are in Christ (1 Corinthians 4: 17). So there is what the brethren in Corinth had to solve their matters—every rich endowment of grace from divine Persons, the apostle’s letter and the presence of Timothy. These should have been enough, and they were enough.

That is one side of the coin; we must consider the other side, which is equally important, that local companies of the saints are not independent of the other local companies, as 1

Corinthians puts it—“with all that in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”.

This implies that whatever administrative action is taken in one place must be capable of being justified to godly enquiries from saints elsewhere. This does not mean that every word said must be justified but that the assembly action must be justifiable. Assembly action has to do with guilt not state. Thus it is not possible to discipline a brother because he is proud; but if he is a thief, or a heretic, or in an unequal yoke—such is guilty and, unless he judges himself and abandons the sin, must become the object of administrative action in the assembly. This makes assembly administration straightforward and clearly justifiable—it is a simple matter of guilt.

The confusion between state and guilt led to a conflict several years ago, the passage in Romans 6 bears on this. One of the things being said at that time was that if conditions in a locality are low you cannot really deal with matters of guilt until the state improves. This is a denial of the scriptural order—“righteousness unto holiness”, Romans 6: 19. If holiness is to be known, righteousness must precede it and not the opposite. Even if local conditions are low, or poor, or bad, we can still judge evil, and are expected to do so. As we form a judgment before the Lord, in self-judgment and humiliation, of the guilt that may be present we proceed on the path which leads to holiness. If there is overt evil to be dealt with, it must be attended to first, and as we do that we will find that the Lord leads us on to the enjoyment of His presence. Certainly, let us be exercised about the conditions that allow evil to flourish, but let us never use those conditions as a reason for not dealing with overt evil.

These things are not to be regarded as a history

lesson but rather as an opportunity to learn the moral background to these conflicts so that the Lord Jesus, at His coming, may find something that is worthy of Himself. We do not forget the many loyal souls in Christendom, but if we think of the public professing system itself—

is that all the Lord Jesus is to have when He comes? Is the disgrace, the shame, the abomination of what dishonours the Lord in Christendom to be the only result after nearly two thousand years of the Spirit’s gracious service? May that never be! Then, as we consider those who, through the mercy of God, have been led to judge the prevailing confusion, is He to find it different with such? Or, shall they, until the Lord come, be characterised by biting and devouring one another? Separation from evil is God’s principle of unity, and we must hold that in doctrine and practice, but does that necessarily involve division? Is there not another way? Can we not rather stand shoulder to shoulder by self-judgment and living in the valley of humiliation so that evil is dealt with without division and loss? May it be so, for His name’s sake.

Substance of a word in meeting for ministry, Dundee, 23 June 1992

EXTRACT

If you bear in mind this simple distinction between grace coming to us in the way of relief, and grace as the display of God in the church, I think it will help you to understand the subject ...

Now the grace of God is referred to here (Titus 2: 9–15), as I said, on the relief side; the relief which God would be pleased to accord to all men. All men may not get the benefit of it, for all men do not believe, and if they do not believe they evidently cannot get the benefit; it can only be had by faith. If a man does not believe the truth of God he cannot get any benefit from

God, for there is no other way in which a link can now be formed between the heart of man and God; there is no other way possible in the present time by which man can be brought back to God. God makes Himself known to man in saving grace, but man can only get the benefit of it by believing God; if he does not, in the very nature of things he stands outside, and is unconscious of grace; therefore it must be by faith. But still that does not affect the great truth that the grace of God that brings salvation to all men has appeared; and by salvation, as I understand, is meant the effectual relief which God would accord to man from the pressure under which man is as the fruit of sin.

But before I refer to the salvation, I want to touch on this point, that, if the grace of God reaches me, the purpose of it is that it may make God known to me in grace. It is a very important truth connected with the gospel, that its purpose is to make God known in the heart of man; and if I am affected and touched by the grace of God, it is that I may know the God of grace—there is nothing that can so affect a man down here as the knowledge of God. It comes out in the way in which a believer orders his conduct in the world, “Denying ungodliness and worldly lusts” he has to “live soberly, righteously and piously”. Why?

Because he has the knowledge of the God of grace in his heart, that is the secret of the change. It is not simply that he knows the grace of God, but he knows the God of grace; the consequence of the grace of God having been brought home to him must be that he is made acquainted with the God of grace.

F. E. Raven (Vol. 2, pp.129–131)

Edited and Published by J. Strachan, 59 Frederick Street, Dundee, DD3 9DE, Scotland Printed by Crystal Stationery, 22 Western Road, Billericay, Essex CM12 9DZ, (T) (0277) 650661

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